Harvard Crimson – Yale Chief Investment Officer David Swensen, whose fund has outperformed Harvard’s over the past two decades, said in a speech last month that Harvard overpays its endowment managersâ€â€providing ammunition for alumni who have assailed the University’s salary structure.
“I have long said that the structure of Harvard Management is inherently unstable,†Swensen said during a question-and-answer session after he spoke to the National Association of College and University Business Officers’ Endowment Management Forum in New York on Jan. 27, according to Institutional Investor magazine. “You can’t pay managers astronomical amounts of money because it tears at the fabric of [the university],†he said, according to the magazine.